Description This is an oil on canvas painting of a richly dressed, beautiful young woman. Her dress is red, silk brocaded with golden thread designs. Her wide belt is of sapphire blue and gold stripes. On her head is a simple black scarf covering her hair. She is adorned with pearl earrings, silver and gold bracelets and one even has small blue enamel flowers. There is a ring on her wedding finger. She leans against a wall tiled with colorful geometric patterns, her eyes half open as her fingers toy with the strands of pearls about her neck.

Object Label Charles-Emile-Hippolyte Lecomte-Vernet
French (1821-1900)
A Jewess of Morocco: Costume de Fête, 1868
Oil on canvas, 50 3/4 x 34 1/4 in.
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2059
In the decades following Napoleon's Egyptian campaign (1798-99), Europeans became increasingly fascinated by the rich and still mysterious Islamic cultures of the East, prompting many to travel there for a closer look. In their quest for new and exotic experiences, artists, too, journeyed to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, or Holy Land-a vast, ethnically diverse region that Europeans described simply as the Orient. Returning home, many artists specialized in romantic depictions of Moroccan, Egyptian, and Near Eastern life, fueling the European taste for "Orientalist" art.
The Parisian painter Lecomte-Vernet made the journey at least once, in 1863, and devoted much of his later career to images of beautiful North African women in elaborate, ceremonial dress. His seductive, brilliant-hued Jewess of Morocco is a striking example.